Trade LSD for Speed - Page 3

Adding Intervals

Both Stofko and Hadfield recommend doing most of your interval training on the trails when you're training for trail races. Erholtz has found much benefit to doing speed work off-road. "It teaches my body and muscles how to run hard over rocky and technical terrain," she contends.

Start with one day of interval training each week, never exceeding two sessions a week. "Space them out," says Stofko. "You need time to recover before you do another hard workout." Hadfield echoes that point, saying, "When you throw too much into the recipe, it can no longer be digested. If you aren't recovering adequately, you'll end up hurt."

Erholtz does her interval training with a watch and judges her effort based on her breathing. Hadfield encourages her athletes run intervals by feel rather than at a prescribed pace, saying that predetermined numbers can potentially hold runners back from their best performances.

"Your training program needs to be diverse, so when you get tired out on the trail, you have endurance, strength, flexibility and speed," says Hadfield. "The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better."

Coach Paul Stofko's Interval Workouts

Interval workout in preparation for a 5K trail race:

:: Warm up 10 minutes

:: 2 minutes hard effort

:: 2 minutes recovery jog

:: Start with four repetitions and work up to eight to 10

:: Cool down 10 minutes

This should be harder than conversation pace, but not so hard that you aren't able to complete the workout. These will feel speedy and will get you breathing hard, but shouldn't be all-out sprints.

Interval workout in preparation for a 50K trail race:

:: Warm up 10 minutes

:: 8 minutes hard effort

:: 6 minutes recovery jog

:: Start with four repetitions and work up to six to eight

:: Cool down 10 minutes

Find a pace that you can sustain—it should not be all out but should be taxing.